Great to hear from you Scarlett! Losing weight, however at a very slow rate, two belt notches in eight months isn't great, starting to walk more, which is good, and forcing myself into 3 portions of F&V a day, not enough, but baby steps.

It was my first visit to Madrid, unfortunately I was working with some Italians who felt that half eight at night was a good time to finish work so I didn't get a lot of ambling time, we tended to go out at about nine thirty, have some Tapas and then a bit of wandering round, it was all very civilised, a couple of nights I was sitting on my balcony at one or two in the morning listening to someone playing the guitar down the street.

The weather was warm, although we did have a couple of days where it rained quite heavily as the Madrilènes said I was very lucky that I saw the city in sun and in rain.

Memories... Bopping to latin beats in a club decorated with red luminous ants, ending the evening with churros and a cup of melted chocolate, sitting on the balcony on a warm early morning listening to the music, watching the Italians go wild over eggs and bacon over sauté potatoes! (Mind you it is one of my quarterly treats, and up there in the things I would have as my last meal.), the taste of proper tomatoes for breakfast.

I shouldn't be feeling hungry after that, after all I had the very wonderful Starshine's three spice chicken (as revealed Over There on the 30th of October) for supper last night, yet for some reason I feel sauté potatoes calling. Only two more days of the chicken to go, I guess I am going to find out if it freezes!

Somehow it was a week of losing things. I forgot to pack my Amex card, so had to pay the bill on my own CC, I remember packing my toothbrush and toothpaste, yet when I arrived in Madrid they were not in the case, and I lost my walkman cable, had to pay £19.50 to replace it at lunchtime today, however I know that definitely started off in Madrid with me, even if it wasn't there any more come Tuesday, and now I cannot find the taxi receipt from Heathrow to home!

I managed to read the new Valdemar book, relatively enjoyable, it was never going to be any more than a fluffy read however it was an enjoyable one.